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Topic: Taxi Driver (Read 25402 times)

I just looked up who Jeffrey Wells is, and he's the guy who called Antichrist a "fartbomb," and said that it was a major embarrassment for the actors and a "career-killer" for von Trier, which showed the absolute least amount of insight and sensitivity to the interests of other people. He didn't like it--fine. But he extended that opinion to an idiotic prediction.

I would like to see Scorsese direct it. If anybody else was going to direct it, they might as well just make some movie not officially related to Taxi Driver. But for Scorsese to go back to something that had so much SOUL after years of making stuff that looks too good on paper (i.e. "respectable"), well, I'd be very interested. With von Trier's involvement, it just can't end up like Scorsese's recent works. Scorsese could use some crazy in his work. Von Trier crazy. I want to see Scorsese get uncomfortable, and I want to see him fight.

I don't see how it makes sense as marketing for Shutter Island, though. I just don't see how this rumor would affect one way or the other whether someone's gonna watch this thing. Of all the reasons to go see Shutter Island, what does this have to do with any of that? And who else cares about this news, really, other than a small handful of movie nerds?

Precisely, outside of the movie nerds, there is a whole lot of people who don't really connect the name Scorsese with anything in particular, except films. Stories like this don't just make some noise, but remind a lot of people who is this guy and what has he done. In any case, shit like this stirs up some conversation around and people hear about scorsese, di caprio, de niro and everyone else involved which indirectly helps shutter island.

jeffrey welles is a weird madman who loves movies but more often than not gets hung up on small details and idiosyncrasies, which affects his judgement in hilarious ways. he also seems to be undecided as if he's a supporter of one of a kind artists or a player in the hollywood traditional landscape. in any way his blog is some entertaining shit. between movie "reviews" and festival and preproduction reports he also finds time to rant about fat latino people who talk loudly during movies and the baldness in kevin spacey's head. I would highly recommend it.

Today I discovered that De Niro asked Scorsese to make a sequel and this is what Schrader had to say:

Quote

DeNiro suggested that to Marty and I about 15 years ago and I told him it was the dumbbest idea that I've ever heard. I told him that character had died not more than 6 months after that movie was over. He was on a death trip and was gonna succeed the next time.

While a Taxi Driver sequel has oft been mooted over the years, it has never looked as though it might really come to fruition. However, it is a prospect that still interests Robert De Niro today…

"I had that idea," said De Niro, when the prospect of revisiting Travis Bickle was raised in a recent interview with The Guardian.

"I talked to Marty [Scorsese] and Paul [Schrader] and we did take a shot at something, whether it was an outline or a script, I forget. But somehow we didn't feel it was right and it didn't take off.

"But I'd like to see where Travis is today. There was something about the guy – all that rage and alienation, that's what the city can do to you. I mean Marty and I are from New York, and even we can feel alienated."

It has of course been hypothesised that Travis actually dies at the end of the original film, and the closing sequence that sees him back behind the wheel is actually just a fantasy.

"Well, that's an interesting theory," responds De Niro. "I know that was not the intention, but it's as valid as anything." Consider the door left open...

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